


Chalk it up to experience

by Pythia (Mythichistorian)



Category: Space: 1999
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 03:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16802926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythichistorian/pseuds/Pythia
Summary: It seemed like a good idea at the time ...





	Chalk it up to experience

Koenig saw the light ahead and sighed with relief. 

Daylight.

Another few yards and they would have made it to safety. He signalled the rest of the party and they came up behind him, treading as softly as they could in the dark tunnels.

“All clear, Commander?” Carter asked, hefting the broad bladed sword in his hand.

Koenig frowned.

“It’s too easy,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

He counted his company under his breath. Six, including himself. They had lost two more underground. Helena looked exhausted: she had spent her strength to save him, down where Morrow had died.

“All right,” he called softly. “Move out. But slowly. And keep your eyes peeled.”

He let them pass him and then followed behind, his ears straining to hear the slightest noise in the dark. His backpack hung heavily on his shoulders, filled with the precious metals that too many of his people had died to gain.

The arrow was silent messenger of death that pierced the dark; Tony staggered in surprise and then went down in front of him with barely a gurgle of sound. Koenig cursed as distorted shapes took shape against the patch of light at the end of the passageway.

Maya was already crouched at Tony’s side, and Koenig snapped at her, hard.

”Leave him. Get out if you can. Alan and I will try and hold them off. Help Helena.”

She sprang to her feet, the knife she had torn from Tony’s belt gleaming in her hands, and nodded determinedly. They ran for the steps together, Koenig striking blindly at the figures that rushed to meet them. One fell beneath his blade and he heard a second go down as Carter struck. Then it was Alan’s turn to stagger, the hard sweep of claws cutting deep into his flesh.

Koenig cursed a second time, forced to leap over the fallen body of his comrade and run on, needing to escape the deadly ambush. Suddenly the steps were beneath his feet. Sunlight dazzled his dark adjusted eyes, but he stumbled on a little further, knowing that their pursuers would not follow into the light. 

“Well,” Koenig said grimly, looking round at what remained of his decimated party. “At least some of us made it.”

Alan Carter’s voice floated across the table, warm with wry amusement.

“I don’t know about you, Commander,” the just butchered Eagle Pilot announced, “but that’s the last time I take a first level character into one of the Professor’s dungeons without at least a holy symbol and a full set of plate armour!”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago, back when the show was still shiny and new, and it's been lurking in my files ever since. It must have occurred to me that the most threatening menace to Alpha's well being was probably boredom. So why not encourage people to play?
> 
> I could imagine whole campaigns being played out in those long, empty days between alien encounters ...


End file.
